A big welcome to all our friends and customers
Many years ago when I left school there were no jobs whatsoever. The only option a lot of young people faced back then was to emigrate. I was encouraged to go to look for work in London but I loved Ireland and Irish people and wanted to stay home with my friends and family. I decided that I would get my head down and work as hard as I could and show people I was worth employing. The only job I could get at first was looking after horses in a livery yard in Kinseally. I was never afraid of hard work and I then got a job sweeping the floors in SuperQuinn Swords 17 hours a week. Shortly after I started a guy had heard about the way I kept the yard in Kinseally and he came and made me a great offer to work for him. I used to cycle from my home in Santry to Portmarnock looked after his 17 horses, mucking out the stables, cleaning the yard etc. I would then finish at lunchtime and cycle to Swords where I would then work from 2 o clock until half six, then cycling back home to Santry a 17 mile round trip.
I gained promotion very quickly in SuperQuinn under Brian Webb, working my way up from the bottom. Collecting trollies, mopping floors, then I was placed in the bakery cleaning, widely regarded as the hardest job in the shop but it was my first contract and I was made full-time. I only worked there for three months before being promoted again. I was offered a job as a store man. On trial for three months I was then made permanent with a store mans contract. Then even though I was only there a short while an opportunity came up for a management position. I was still only 22 but I was made assistant back stores manager. I was delighted. My hard work was paying off. Here I remained until 2002 when SuperQuinn decided to go Central Warehousing doing away with the need for store men.
I was made redundant on Friday 2nd May 2002 with a cheque in my pocket as a reward for 16 years of loyal service and hard graft in all sorts of weathers. I loved my time in SuperQuinn Swords making life long close friends many of whom I work for and are in contact with today.I took on my first job on Monday the 5th of May after being laid off two days previous, laying a new driveway for a girl who worked on checkouts at the time. John The Handyman was born. I had decided I would look for work as a handyman for the summer to have a break and recharge the batteries before I got a real job. I had a mortgage and three young children to care for. Summer went by very quickly I was flat out, word had spread and I had a list of jobs as long as my arm and no sign of it getting any shorter. Autumn came, then winter and I was still working flat out. If I wanted to I wouldn’t have been able to stop. Thats is the story of the humble beginnings of Johnthehandyman.ie.
Johnthehandyman.ie 